Quiet Gifts
by Wannabe Darklord
Summary: Bruce wakes up on the Statesman alone and covered in cat hair. It still isn't the strangest thing that's happened to him this week. At least he hopes it is still this week. [A post Ragnarok fic where Bruce de-Hulks and tries to get his bearings again. Certain people may or may not be helpful in that regard.]


**A/N:** Written for the Chocolate box 2018 exchange. Comments always welcome :)

* * *

Bruce woke up all at once, as abruptly as he'd felt himself leave after hitting that bridge. He lay very very still. He was in some metal room, on a mattress big enough for the Hulk. He could hear a faint rumbling of engines, the sound penetrating down into his chest. Nothing hurt. The temperature was pleasantly cool against his arms. No one was screaming or looking for him.

He unclenched his muscles, almost melting down into the mattress. When was the last time he had really slept, not just been subsumed into the Hulk? This was nice. He let the rumble lull him into a doze. He hadn't thought he would ever turn back into himself, not after he'd broken his neck in that fall. Whatever drama Thor and co were in the middle of could wait. He deserved this.

The rumble against his chest shifted. Bruce opened his eyes, staring at the ceiling. Did he want to deal with this? With a sigh, he looked down.

Large green eyes set in a black furry face stared back. The cat half-closed its eyes and continued its rumbling purr. There was something awfully familiar about the creature, even though he was certain he'd never seen it before.

Bruce looked back up. Nope, he was not dealing with this right now. He closed his eyes and let the purr drift him off into sleep.

* * *

The next time he woke the cat was nowhere to be seen. Instead he found a pile of clothes covered in black hairs. The pants and tunic looked Asgardian. Bruce sighed. Whatever this room was, it didn't look much like the shining gold he'd seen in Asgard. And the only way to find out what the hell had happened was to go out and explore and hope he came across a familiar face.

But really, if he wasn't supposed to be in here, surely someone other than a cat would have come across him by now? And well, there _were_ the clothes left for him. _Someone_ had left them for him.

His racing thoughts calmer, Bruce tugged the clothes on. The shirt sagged on him and he really needed a belt, but it did the job in covering him. They were a bit of a relief really, after Tony's tight clothes.

The door mechanism took him an embarrassingly long moment to figure out. The symbols looked Sakaaran though. Now that he was away from a purring cat, he could still feel the rumble of engines against the soles of his bare feet. That answered one question at least. He was on a ship. But on a ship going where?

Outside, the corridor was bare and gloomy. Large, but gloomy. His room was at the end of a long empty hallway. There were no passages branching off to the sides or anyone in the corridor. The light was muted, only faintly glowing strips present to guide his way. Bruce nodded to himself. It was a good place to put the Hulk. The engines also sounded far away. If he wasn't mistaken, he should be near the outer hull. It would make it easier to jettison the Hulk rather than have everyone on board be killed accidentally if the Hulk lost his temper.

He started down the corridor. Soon enough, he began to see signs of life on board. There were several people in the rest of the ship. Strangely, none of them paid him much attention. Bruce winced a little when he saw them. The drawn dirty faces, ragged clothes, their _expressions_...he'd seen people like that before. Refugees. And from their clothing, Asgardian refugees. What had happened?

Bruce managed to find his way to what he thought was the bridge after _several_ minutes of wandering. The bubbling anxiety that had been present ever since he'd woken up vanished when he caught a glimpse of Thor. He took a deep breath and let it out. At least one familiar face was present. Thor's face lit up when he turned and saw Bruce.

Though -

"What happened to your eye?"

"Bruce!" Thor said before picking him up in a hug. "I didn't realize you'd changed back."

"Yeah, neither did I, at first," Bruce said when Thor released him, scratching at the back of his neck, "It was a surprise to me too, I didn't think I'd ever come back."

Thor just smiled. It was less exuberant, but still warm. Bruce looked around, managing to not catch the eye of anyone who definitely wasn't watching the two of them interact. Definitely not.

"Thor, what happened? Where are we? How did the fight go? Your eye? Where did this ship come from? And -"

Thor clapped him on the shoulder, his smile strained. He looked tired.

"Do not worry yourself, Bruce. The battle has been won! In a sense. But Asgard was destroyed. If it were not for Loki returning on this ship, we would all have been destroyed with it. We saved the people of Asgard and are now headed to Earth, which is all that matters."

"Destroyed? Wait, no - Loki? Wait, Earth? You're heading to Earth?" Bruce asked. He blinked, trying not to feel overwhelmed. Behind Thor, he finally noticed the window that showed the stars blazing past them as the ship travelled.

He was in space. On a ship. Filled with refugees from a destroyed planetoid.

Bruce hunched over, trying to take a deep breath. So much for not feeling overwhelmed. He wanted to giggle, but was having trouble finding the breath to. His heart rate spiked at the thought of the Hulk making an appearance because of his distress. But the presence in the back of his mind was not so present at the moment. Bruce only got a vague feeling of disdained amusement before the grumbling settled down.

"It's all good, Bruce. No need to worry. Sun's going down, sun's getting real low -"

"Can -" he coughed and then finally managed to take a deep breath, "Can you stop doing that? It's really not as helpful as you think it is."

Apart from the fact that the conditioning was only meant to work on the Hulk, it brought back memories of Natasha he would rather not think of right now. They'd worked together a lot on getting control of the Hulk; it was one reason they'd spent so long dancing around each other, why they'd even gotten to the point of dancing around each other.

"Sorry," Thor said and stopped rubbing Bruce's shoulders. Bruce missed the warm weight of his hands immediately, though the relief of them being gone was greater. Being touched was nice, but Thor's grip tended to be just on the wrong side of too firm, with a nervous quality that said all too much about Thor's desire to not have the Hulk be present.

When Bruce finally straightened up, emotions somewhat more under his control, he saw Thor looking at him sheepishly. Bruce was once more confronted with how much he'd managed to miss while he was the Hulk; though it did seem that he had not been pushed aside for as long this time.

"What happened to your eye? Did I ask that already? Am - should I not ask?"

Thor just grinned, waving Bruce's apology away.

"You did, but it is no matter. Hela happened."

Bruce just nodded. He was still a little unclear about who Hela even was. A secret sister of Thor's and Loki's. Bruce couldn't afford to throw too many rocks in this particular glass house, but damn, Thor's family had problems. He just hoped they didn't have even more secrets hiding in the works just waiting for the worst moment for it to bite them in the ass. Thor's problems had a tendency to become the universe's problems.

"Right. Anything else I should know about?"

Thor was about to answer when an Asgardian nearby gestured to him. Thor grimaced.

"Duty calls. But yes, there's probably more you need to know. Valkyrie can tell you. You will likely find her in the mess hall draining the liquor stores dry."

Thor clapped Bruce on his shoulder and left. He turned around before he even took a few steps.

"You...er, you didn't happen to see Loki on your way here, did you?"

Bruce was _very_ familiar with the feeling of foreboding Thor's words awoke in him.

"No. Should I have?"

"No no, it's just…"Thor sighed and shook his head, "Never mind. I'm sure he'll turn up once he stops sulking. Mess hall is that way!" He pointed to the left, drawing Bruce's gaze to a door leading away from the bridge. When Bruce looked back, he was deep in a discussion with another Asgardian, a budding frown on his face. Bruce stood there for a moment, fidgeting. Then he turned and looked out the window, but the stars were passing by too quickly to be very interesting. The _concept_ of faster than light travel was great, but the reality was just...travel. Maybe he'd go look for the engine room in a few days once he leveled out more. It'd be neat to see how this all worked.

But for now, with a lack of anything better to do, he left through the door Thor had indicated. His instructions were completely inadequate though. The door just led to a maze of corridors that had him lost within minutes. It really didn't help that he couldn't even read whatever language the signs were in. It wasn't until a passing child took pity on him that he had proper directions.

The mess hall itself was huge. It was also dark. Everything on the ship was dark. Bruce could see the numerous light fixtures, so unless those were broken, the darkness wasn't out of a lack of opportunity. They were saving power.

At the far end of the hall, he could see a figure against a lit bar. Even those lights were dimmed. As he got closer, the figure resolved into the Valkyrie, still as naggingly familiar as ever. She'd ditched the black leather for a white armor that practically shone, even in the dim light. The blue light backdrop made it look like she was glowing.

Admittedly, watching her chug an entire bottle of liquor that smelled like engine cleaner the next moment ruined the ethereal image.

"Hey! Bruce, wasn't it?" she said and put the bottle down with a clank onto the bar. "Pull up a chair."

"Yeah…" Bruce said. He sat next to her, clasping his hands and settling them on the bar, "Valkyrie, right? Is that like a title or?"

Her smile turned into a grimace.

"It _was_ a calling. But it'll do as a name now. Not like there are any other Valkyrie left."

"I'm sorry," Bruce said, looking down at his hands. He heard her shifting next to him and she sighed. Bottles clinked and she set down a pair of glasses onto the bar.

"Thank you. You know, I think that's the first time anyone's ever shown any honest sympathy for that? All _His Majesty_ ," the way she said it didn't indicate any particular measure of respect, even though the fondness was there, "could think of was getting me to help with his little family tiff."

"That sounds depressingly familiar," Bruce agreed. Not that he really blamed Thor. If he hadn't been the Hulk the entire time, he would have wanted to get off Sakaar as soon as possible too. And they _had_ needed to deal with Hela. Bruce didn't want to think about what would have happened if they'd appeared even a few minutes later.

"So, what actually happened after I Hulk'd out?"

Valkyrie looked at him over the rim of her glass, eyebrow raised.

"You don't remember what goes on when you're the big guy? That explains a lot. Well...after you distracted the damn dog, Loki appeared on this ship. We distracted the draugr and Hela until everyone boarded. But that bitch just wouldn't stay down. Since her power was connected to Asgard and she'd pretty much murdered everyone else there, Thor got the bright idea to trigger Ragnarok."

At Bruce's blank expression, she explained.

"Big fire demon prophesied to destroy Asgard. Don't think about it too much. Though Hulk was _very_ disappointed he didn't get to fight Sutur."

Bruce managed to crack a grin at that.

"Yeah, he would've been. How did I turn back? After falling like that, I didn't think I'd ever be myself again."

Valkyrie's own grin slipped at that and she turned back to her drink. She shrugged in such a deliberately nonchalant way that Bruce was certain she was not at all neutral about what she was going to say.

"I love the big guy, don't get me wrong. But you - he... he takes up a _lot_ of space and has a temper."

Bruce just nodded. As big as this ship seemed, if all of what remained of Asgard was on it, space was likely at a premium. And with a stolen ship - how much fuel did they have? How much food and water? The Hulk could probably eat his entire weight in food every day with no trouble.

"Too many close calls with the bulkheads," Valkyrie continued, her tone light as though Bruce hadn't come close to killing everyone on this ship multiple times.

"So how did you get me to turn back? Don't tell me the conditioning actually worked?"

That might explain Thor's constant repetition of it.

Valkyrie giggle snorted. She wiped at her mouth and set her glass down. Her eyes sparkled when she turned to look at him.

"That was priceless. No, the conditioning didn't work. Hulk almost slammed Thor through the bottom of the ship when he tried. Again. I managed to talk him out of it. I doubt even the Hulk could survive space."

She drained her drink and poured more.

"I didn't realize Thor and Loki finally agreed on what to do to turn you back. I thought Thor was still trying to find him."

Loki being in any way involved with him and the Hulk was not something Bruce wanted to hear.

"Yeah, Thor told me he was trying to find him. I thought he'd be gloating everywhere for bringing the ship that saved everyone?"

She shrugged.

"I thought so too, but he mostly kept to himself. Then Thor almost got smashed and he and Thor got into this great big argument that half the ship heard and now no one can find him. I'm not too worried. Heimdall says he's still on board. He'll turn up eventually."

Bruce considered that for a moment, staring into the drink he hadn't touched yet. He didn't even want to consider what alcohol that could get an Asgardian drunk would do to him. He got up behind the bar and managed to find something non alcoholic. It smelled like fruit, though he had no idea what kind.

"What did they fight about?"

Ideally, he wouldn't have to care at all. But again, Thor's problems had a way of becoming _his_ problems as well.

"Thor got mad when Loki told him he took the Tesseract from the Vaults and Loki took it as Thor saying he'd rather Loki was dead. I don't know what went on between those two, but that entire family is _such_ a mess."

Bruce spluttered juice everywhere. He was glad the Hulk was still subdued, because the way his heart was racing would have brought him out way too soon.

"Loki took the Tesseract?! How? Why? Does he still have it? Are we letting him have it? Why? How?"

Valkyrie just stared at him like he was losing it. To be fair, Bruce probably was, a little.

"Because how else was he going to get away from the giant fire demon manifesting in the Vaults in time? I don't get what the big deal is, it's not like he can really use it without burning himself into a crisp. And he's the only seidr user on board who can keep it contained and shielded. The kind of attention that thing could bring is the last thing we need with a ship full of civilians."

"And using it to escape wouldn't draw attention?"

Bruce would've breathed a lot easier of Loki _had_ burned to a crisp. But that was unkind. He didn't wish that sort of misery on Thor...again. Especially after he'd lost his entire world.

"I think the giant explosion where Asgard used to be was a lot more noticable. Besides, you should have seen Thor sulking before Loki turned up the first time. Not something I want to experience again."

"What I wouldn't give to not have to get involved in their family fights," Bruce muttered. But the Valkyrie heard him and laughed. She clapped him on the back, lifting her drink in a toast.

"I'll drink to that! And have. Many times. Royals are the worst. Either get drunk like everybody else or get some therapy!"

Bruce nodded in agreement, lifting his own glass. Then he changed the subject, not wanting to dwell on Thor's family issues anymore. He'd be fine going through his whole life without dealing with those again.

"So, how'd you even meet the Hulk? You don't sound very afraid of him. Not that you'd have reason to be. Those moves during our escape? So amazing!"

Valkyrie just grinned at the praise. Or maybe his slightly lovesick expression. Bruce couldn't really help it - she _was_ rather awesome.

"I'm the one that found you when you crashed. You were wailing on some scavengers when I offered you more of a challenge. Best fight I had in years. You followed me back to the Grandmaster's arena and became his champion once you beat the tar out of his security team. That was pretty fun to watch. We used to train together."

The wistful note at the end made him fidget. He was not going to volunteer to be pummeled by her, even though he was sure that experience would be amazing. Painful, but amazing.

"Thank you," he said instead. He shrugged at her questioning look, "For being a friend to him. He doesn't have many of those."

Only Tony, before. And after what Wanda did to him in Johannesburg and Tony using his suit to stop him, the Hulk hadn't been so fond of Tony either. That was another thing Bruce would never forgive her for. He pushed those thoughts aside. It hurt to worry about the people he'd left behind on Earth. It wasn't like there was anything he could do about it yet.

"Well then," Valkyrie stood up and went behind the bar. She pulled out a huge bottle filled with something blue, "here's to being friends with the Hulk!"

Bruce could only smile, lifting his own glass in agreement.

* * *

By the time he stumbled back into his quarters he was pleasantly buzzed. Val had talked him into drinking. Very very diluted by juice drinking, but drinking. It was nice. He could barely remember the last time he felt secure enough to unwind even as much as he had. There was something to be said for being the squishiest person on board and surrounded by very unsquishy people should his alter ego want to come out and play. And with Val there, he wasn't even too worried about the Hulk losing his temper badly. Though even just vigorous sparring might not be the best idea on a ship.

Bruce fumbled with the controls, but managed to find the light switch. He blinked at the mattress. The cat from before was back. It was lying in the exact center of the bed, half-lidded eyes staring at him. Its tail was lazily twitching.

Bruce stared. The cat stared back. It really was unnervingly familiar. Helped along by the drink, Bruce was having a thought he didn't much like the shape of. But with the way his life was going, he was probably right. And if he was wrong, there was no one here to hear him but the cat.

"You know Thor's been looking for you?"

The cat narrowed its eyes and stilled. With a huff and a shimmer of green, instead of the cat it was Loki on his bed. Thankfully fully dressed. Bruce was really not ready to deal with _that_ particular trauma had it occurred.

"Whatever he wants of me, that oaf can keep looking. I am not particularly inclined to respond to any of his demands right now," Loki said. Bruce could see he was trying to maintain a disdainful air. The clenched jaw and rigid set of his shoulders gave away the deeper hurt underneath. Loki's mind was still a bag of cats (sometimes more literally it seemed), but even Bruce could see _how_ he got to the conclusion he did. Thor really wasn't great with words and often wasn't great with them at the worst moments possible.

"I think he just wanted to apologize," Bruce said, instead of the hundred other things that occurred to him to say. Loki's sneer showed that no apology would be accepted just yet. Oh well, he'd tried. He did _not_ want to get any more involved in their spat than he already was.

"So…" Bruce said after a long minute of awkward staring. Well, awkward for him. He was pretty sure it was awkward for Loki as well, but the earlier vulnerability had long since been masked by an air of indifference. "Why a cat and why this room?"

Loki lifted one shoulder in a lazy shrug.

"It is a form I know well. Small, fast, quick and silent. And who would think to look for me here, with the lurking beast?"

"And the Hulk let you?"

Loki scowled, looking away for the first time. Bruce held back his grin; he didn't want Loki to think he was mocking him, even though the idea that had occurred to him _was_ amusing.

"The beast knew it was me, yet it just wanted to pet me."

Loki looked so angrily bewildered that Bruce could not help the snort that escaped. Loki glared at him, but Bruce felt strangely unthreatened.

"Sorry, sorry. Just, I can't imagine you'd ever let yourself be pet by him. I thought you'd avoid the other guy like the plague."

"A cat has different priorities. He was adequate at the petting. And warm. Why you wish to maintain this weak form is beyond me."

As with everything about Loki, there was a lot to unpack in those few sentences. But Bruce wasn't particularly in the mood to do so beyond a vague pity that Loki would rather be a cat than deal with Thor. Though to be fair, if Bruce could turn into various animals, he's not certain he wouldn't be doing the same.

"Yeah, well, this weak form needs its beauty sleep."

Taking the hint, Loki rose from the mattress and stiffly made his way to the door.

"Thanks though," Bruce said. Loki didn't quite turn, but inclined his head in an unstated question.

"For the clothes. And the de-Hulking. How'd you manage it?"

A faint blush rose on Loki's cheeks. He cleared his throat and stared straight ahead at the door, but didn't leave in a huff.

"It was not precisely intentional. It seems one beast's purring lulled the other to sleep."

Bruce smiled, oddly charmed by the entire chain of events. No one would _ever_ believe him if he told this to anyone.

"Well...thanks either way. Good night, Loki," he said and settled down onto the mattress. He sneezed. It was absolutely _covered_ in cat hair.

"Good night, Bruce," was the quiet reply. The last thing Bruce saw before he drifted off to sleep was a small black shadow slinking out the door.

 **END**


End file.
